Astbury Village by John Cocks

Astbury Village by John Cocks

Spring sunshine at Astbury Mere by Caroline Wood

St Mary's Church Astbury by Paul Draycott

Swan at Astbury by Keith Marriott

Swan in Astbury by Bradly Titto Kurian

View back towards Astbury from the Macclesfield Canal by Paul Taylor

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The village of Astbury (or Newbold Astbury to give its full title) stands another of Cheshire’s most significant buildings, St Mary’s Church.

Built substantially in the 13th and 14th centuries, with major rebuilding in the 15th century, St Mary’s has an unusual trapezoidal plan, a separate tower and a wide nave, all of which caused the late Raymond Richards - owner of Gawsworth Hall and author of Old Cheshire Churches - to hail St Mary’s as ‘one of the most beautiful churches in the county’.

This was a place of worship long before St Mary’s was built, as evidenced by the discovery of the fragment of a Saxon cross, on display in the church, and a mention of a priest here in the Domesday Book.

If Astbury has a lovely church, it also has a pretty village green - a carpet of daffodils come spring - and that other staple of English village life, a historic pub, the 16th century Egerton Arms.